


don't fear the reaper

by lovemutt



Category: The Sims (Video Games)
Genre: Cats, Fluff, Grim Reapers, Heaven & Hell, Implied Murder, M/M, demon characters, past crimes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:13:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,408
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26850448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovemutt/pseuds/lovemutt
Summary: Reaper had been stuck in this new state for what seemed like a decade now, maybe more, all because he was nice. All it took was one look at Ebony’s face, so young and yet so terrified at that moment as they were close to being caught. They wanted to escape, to leave the bright Heavens and find some semblance of freedom on the mortal planes, and Ebony was just a child… So Reaper put a large, clawed hand on her shoulder, pulling her into a soft side-hug before he stepped away.Jake whispered after him to come back, Cerb tried to follow with a hand outstretched before Jake pulled him back. Their little sister was silent, but Reaper could feel her eyes burning into him, though it did nothing except encourage him to keep walking until he was in the open, staring out into the infinitely confusing body of the angel looking for them.And he ran.
Relationships: Neil/Grim Reaper





	don't fear the reaper

**Author's Note:**

> Exploration on my lore for the Grim Reaper, who started as a Sims character lol

Sacrifice was something Reaper knew from the very start of his life. Always giving up things he wanted in favor of his siblings being happy, always sleeping less so Ebony could share a room with him in their small home, always running errands for his mother so Jake could take a day to himself. 

He never thought it was a problem, he liked helping out. But maybe sometimes being nice, helping out, wasn’t the right thing to do.

Reaper had been stuck in this new state for what seemed like a decade now, maybe more, all because he was nice. All it took was one look at Ebony’s face, so young and yet so terrified at that moment as they were close to being caught. They wanted to escape, to leave the bright Heavens and find some semblance of freedom on the mortal planes, and Ebony was just a child… So Reaper put a large, clawed hand on her shoulder, pulling her into a soft side-hug before he stepped away.

Jake whispered after him to come back, Cerb tried to follow with a hand outstretched before Jake pulled him back. Their little sister was silent, but Reaper could feel her eyes burning into him, though it did nothing except encourage him to keep walking until he was in the open, staring out into the infinitely confusing body of the angel looking for them.

And he ran.

The angel followed, asking in a voice impossibly loud and yet so sickly sweet, ‘Where are your siblings, little one?’

The other three never saw him again. Oh, but Reaper saw them. Reaper saw everything after that. The angels said he was aptly named, said he was the only true mixture of his parents that was completely half-and-half, neutral. The best of both worlds, they said, new training in order now that we only have you.

It made him feel worried at first, but afterward… He just felt nothing.

The Grim Reaper’s Neutrality. To be uncaring and unworried was much needed in his job, sorting people as Death commanded despite the begging and pleading.

Grim stood tall, bathed in the dark falls of his cloak, black nothingness enveloping where its face should be, where it once was. Once soft, tan hands were now gaunt and grey, cold as ice and gentle as the wind, used mostly to clutch his scythe and guide people to their fates.

Uncaring, unbothered, neutral.

They saw their siblings after it all, though they didn’t see it. Ebony, now going by Death full-time, never interacted with the Reapers she commanded, not even the one who ultimately decided where the souls she allowed to pass over went. Jake never looked too hard in the shadows, investigated into plains beyond his reach. Cerb didn’t seem to care, never looking at the Reapers he could see if he wanted.

Uncaring, unbothered, neutral.

Even if they didn’t worry about their lost brother, Grim didn’t care, and they couldn’t care if they tried. The neutrality gifted to xem leaked through everything, even memories, thoughts, xir very past as an older brother and loving sibling. The memories, once colored grey and lifeless, were easy to forget, fading away into its mind with nothing to keep them weighed down. Much of Grim’s past was a mystery, no matter how much others asked.

Narthy was a short, curious soul doomed to conduct the train to Hell for eternity, though what he had done to deserve it was anyone’s guess. A long, gnarled left arm that would hang far lower than any arm should, black and clawed and impossibly hot. Liquid ash dripped from his right eye, colored grey, his right eye colored purple and blue with a broken, irregular pupil staring into the face of the souls he loaded onto his train. The train in question was cramped, just a little too hot, with ceramics that rattled the whole way.

The soul asked the most questions of Grim, even more than the other two who guided souls to their destinations.

Marisu and Rikiel, Purgatory, and Heaven respectively.

Marisu was the favorite of Grim, just as neutral as he was (well, maybe a little less), ever vigilant. She drove what looked like a van from the mortal plane, loading up a mortal or two these days to go take a look around Purgatory. She had dark skin, though not like Grim did, bright green hair and her left arm took the form of what seemed like mist. It wafted and waded in the windless crossroads that represented the meeting point of them all, the train in the station, the van situated on a barren dirt road with nothing for miles around, and the bus that was positioned to go up a nicely paved road, leading towards a mountain that glowed and burst with life towards the top.

Marisu was kind, curled hair tied back, sitting on the hood of her van and staring at the empty sky. The van ride was uncomfortable, but not unbearable. It had A/C, but no music played and the drive was especially unremarkable, the seats were slightly sticky but there were cracker snacks in the bags on the back seats. Balanced. Just like Narthy, one of her eyes dripped an unknown substance, one of her pupils just as irregular and confusing, but more in a defined shape. 

They were all standing around, Narthy in his train, Marisu on her van, Rikiel inspecting his bus.

Rikiel was the last of the trio of souls, the deliverer of souls unto the Heavens. Grim held an unknown and confusing distaste of Rikiel, though it was buried and hidden within his forced neutrality.

Rikiel was the nicer looking of them all, eye dripping pure golden ichor that smelled of vanilla, arm in the form of a soft-feathered wing with a feathered hand at the end, a pupil in the distinct shape of a heart. They dressed in soft yellows and pinks, cloaked in flowers and sparkles floating around them as they glowed with nothing but holy energy. The bus they drove was nice, far nicer than Narthy’s train or Marisu’s van. The perfect temperature, comfortable seats with soft music playing in the background-- Though the souls heard what they wanted.

They sat like this, silent yet enjoying the others company, for as long as it took for Grim to gather together the souls they needed. Along the way, the souls pleaded begged Grim to not do it, to send them to Heaven. They always begged.

Xe arrived with the souls, though they took the form of small, glowing lights that Grim held on xir hand, holding them out and dropping them down one at a time. As they fluttered to the ground, sprouting up into the shapes of humans, Grim spoke in a voice that chilled anyone who heard it, its very presence unsettling everyone around it.

“Heaven,” Grim announced, pointing towards the bus behind the souls. They turned, the bulk of them looking on with relief as they walked towards the bus with one looking particularly shocked, and once their form solidified it could be seen that they wore a vest with several buttons on it, including a large pronoun button. Rikiel smiled at them all, opening the doors and letting them pile on. The angelic soul paused to wave towards the other two souls, and Grim, before they too got on the bus, waiting quietly for any last-minute decisions.

The next bulk of the souls fell quickly, and Grim was quicker to speak this time, “Hell.”

They looked more disdained this time, though most trudged off towards the train, unable to do anything else. Pleads fell on deaf ears, begging did nothing, accept your fate. Narthy was hanging half out of the window in the front of the train with a grin, “Hey, always love to meet new friends!” He called with a malicious cackle.

Finally, Grim held out its grey hand, now clutching only three softly glowing souls, and dropped them all down at once. With a look over them that just seemed like staring thanks to the darkness that was the spot where Grim’s face should be, it spoke loudly, no uncertainty in their words, “Purgatory.” A pointed and grey finger motioned towards the van, where Marisu was sliding off the hood of her van.

“I didn’t expect anyone today.” She said, moving around to the driver’s side of her vehicle.

“I wasn’t sure where to put these three,” Grim replied, looking over the souls. “A middle-aged woman who devoted her life to her religion, but used it to hurt her children. A repentant criminal who spent his life making up for his crimes. And…” Grim noticeably turned his head down to stare at the smaller figure among them all, a child no more than twelve, “This one. A child just past the age of automatic admittance to the Heavens. I ask for input.”

Rikiel seemed to also see the child, clamoring over towards the group, “Children,” They began to say without stopping to read the room, “Are allowed into Heaven.”

“They are past the age.”

“They are a child.” Rikiel said, moving to put a winged hand on the small soul’s shoulder, “Children are not considered evil, and Purgatory is for those who are too evil for Heaven and--”

“I know what Purgatory is for,” Grim spoke, fingers tapping against xir staff as they tightened xir grip to reposition it. “I will allow them to go with you. Do not dare to question my knowledge again.”

Rikiel leads the soul back towards their bus without another word, leaving just Grim, the souls, and Marisu to discuss. There was a momentary silence as the air was allowed to clear, and Marisu spoke as she walked towards the group, away from her van.

“The first one, the middle-aged woman. How devout was she?”

“Oh, very,” Grim replied.

“How badly did she treat her children?”

“One of them died on the streets.”

“That is murder.”

“She did not do it herself.”

Marisu suddenly seemed as conflicted as Grim, turning to look at the soul, now in the perfectly seen shape of a woman, long hair, and a silver cross around her neck. “I understand your difficulty in sorting her. What did she do with her devotion?”

“Opened charities for the homeless.”

“But not her child?”

“Not her child, and no one like her child.”

“Sympathy with conditions nullifies the original goodness of intentions.”

Grim made a small noise of consideration, looking towards the soul as well, fingers clicking against the wood of the scythe once more before it spoke, words just as chilling as before, “You are right, guardian. The balance has been tipped in favor of evil, it seems.”

The soul looked shocked, eyes wide, and she opened her mouth to speak. Nothing came out no matter how hard she tried, and Marisu looked towards Grim, “Can you hear her?”

“Yes.”

“What is she saying?”

“She is calling us monsters and saying she deserves to be in Heaven.”

Marisu looked as stoic as ever, though she moved to place a gentle hand on the second soul, the soul of the criminal, “Come with me.” She said, leading them towards her van. It seems the decision was understood through them all, as even Narthy paused to reopen the doors on his train, looking towards grin with a manic smile.

“Hell.” Grim finally spoke, pointing towards the train. Compelled to walk despite her want to do anything else, the soul turned and marched towards the train, where Narthy giggled, shutting the doors right behind her.

The guardian gave a wave before he started up his train, grinning before the train took off, slowly but surely. Grim did not care either way about the idea of being on the train for as long as the souls would be, but for them it was torture.

Marisu was loading up the soul in her van, pausing to hand him a small plastic wrapper of peanut butter crackers before she turned and gave a wave to Grim, climbing in and starting up her van. It sputtered a bit but did start, and the guardian turned around and drove off. Rikiel left long ago, realizing they would not be needed, and soon enough Grim was left very alone at the crossroads.

Uncaring, unbothered, neutral.

Grim turned, looking at all the exits the guardians had taken and found no one there. With a quiet tapping against xir scythe, a grey hand raised it into the air before bringing it down on the ground with a thunk, and then they were somewhere else.

Quiet, warm energy filled the room they were in, soft light covering everything in the room and making Grim stand out more than it would in general. The very absence of anything that peaked out from under their cloak swallowed up any light, quite the alarming sight in such a quaint living room. Earth toned furniture and paintings of cats and flowers hung everywhere, a blue and white rug just in front of a brown couch on the far wall and a large TV on the other wall across from it. An archway led to the kitchen, though right now the lights were turned off and only the soft blue light from the coffee maker shone in the darkness.

Grim turned, spotting the exit into the hallway and moving towards it. To anyone else, it would seem like he was floating, and in a way he was, floating into the hallway and stopping by the door to gently rest his scythe by the door. A soft jingling drew his attention, and Grim looked down to see a cat staring up at him with big eyes before it slowly sat, another jingle from the bell on its collar sounding, and gave a soft meow.

The cat was a soft golden color that faded into white, a simple black collar around her neck. She meowed again, and Grim felt compelled to lean down, putting a cold hand on her back and petting her slowly. The cat purred before she stood and meowed again, trotting off.

Grim liked the cat.

There was a silence in the house, curiously enough, and Grim found themself curious as they moved forward, looking into the dark bedroom on the left to find no one, following suit with every other room in the home. They… knew he was home, which was where the slight confusion came in, and with a begrudging thought, they moved towards the bookcase in the office. The office followed suit with the rest of the house, warm lighting, accepting energy. Books littered the surfaces of the tables and desks within, the computer on the main desk on with links open to an online store. 

Grim paid no mind to the computer as it moved to the bookcase, curling grey fingers around the edge and pulling it open with inhuman strength. The wall behind the bookcase looked normal, though to anyone who had a skilled eye there was a noticeable difference. The paint here was just slightly newer, a tint off, and Grim pulled on it as well, sliding the false wall to the side. It led to a room far more different than the rest of the house, the lighting bright and LED-based rather than warm and inviting. The walls and floors were tile and concrete, a small staircase leading down into the basement. Mementos from an unknown past were scattered around on tables, a stolen ATM in the corner and a stained baseball bat leaned against it, bags, masks, and gloves on a table, with far more in the room that Grim didn’t care enough to investigate as xe moved towards the stairs.

Floating down without a noise, Grim came upon the scene of a man standing in the middle of the basement, staring at a tiled area in the corner that took up a rather considerable part of the small basement. The basement was similar to the room upstairs, cold and harsh lighting, an empty cement and tiled space that was the direct opposite of the rest of the home. 

Grim was known for being silent, and just as xe was about to announce xir presence, the man spoke.

“You bring a chill into the room when you arrive, have I told you that? It would be unnerving to others, but since I know it’s you…” The man turned, smiling at Grim, “I think I like it.”

“Hello, Neil.”

“Hello, Grim.” The man replied, smiling as he moved to walk towards the reaper, “How was your day, love?”

“Long.”

It was… different around Neil. When it was around Neil, it felt… No, it just felt. That was shocking in its own right, though it didn’t start like that. It took many, many meetings and a fist-fight before Grim ended up realizing there was some sort of bubbling feeling within them when they were forced to reap with souls of the victims.

Neil was not a good person. He would most definitely be sorted to Hell when he died despite Grim’s personal feelings, that was their job after all. They didn’t have to like it, they didn’t like it, but it… had to be done.

But Neil wouldn’t die for a long while, surely, and he hadn’t killed since Grim began visiting regularly. Surely he had an entire lifetime to make up for it…? Purgatory was better than Hell. That was a conversation for another time, Grim considered, as Neil reached him and grabbed his cold hands without a hint of hesitation.

Grim wasn’t sure what it felt, it had been longer than they remembered since the Reaper’s Neutrality had no hold on an aspect of them. Was it love? Perhaps. Enamoration? Maybe. But they liked it. They liked it a lot.

“Let’s go upstairs, alright?” Neil said, smiling again.

“What were you doing down here?” Grim inquired, pausing before it lifted a hand to cup Neil’s face, “Are you bothered by it again?”

“I guess it sort of dawned on me who I used to be.”

“It was acts of what you perceived to be justice.”

Neil didn’t reply, how could he? He just offered another smile, tugging on Grim’s hand, “Let’s go upstairs, love. I don’t want to be down here anymore.”

Grim nodded, following after Neil up the stairs and out of the false wall, closing up the bookcase behind them. Neil walked out of the office, speaking a bit louder for Grim to hear him, “I know you can’t eat, but do you want something to eat?”

“I dissolve it within the shadows.” Grim responded as he followed Neil into the kitchen, watching the lights turn on as Neil hit the switch, lighting up the homey kitchen. It was just as warm as the rest of the house, tan tiles, and brown cabinets with spices and coffee mugs on the counter.

“Well, would you like something to dissolve within the shadows then?”

“I would enjoy a bagel.”

Neil gave a soft chuckle, moving to open the bread box, “As you wish, dear.”

The reaper took a seat near the bar, not that it needed to sit at all. It was… just something it saw Neil doing and took after. Most of its behavior here was just mimicking its boyfriend, following what the mortal did to make him more comfortable.

Grim would truly like to understand the feelings he held for Neil, but with no past reference, it was hard to tell. The others would condemn him for becoming so entangled with this mortal’s life, and Grim knew that Heaven would most likely banish him if they found out, that was to say nothing of what the entire otherworldly plane would do. Would his decisions be called into question? Reversed? Reviewed?

Perhaps, xe thought, that was a problem for another time, a time when Neil wasn’t toasting a bagel for a being that couldn’t eat and looking over his shoulder at xem, smiling. A time when Grim could focus on something else other than the soft brown of his hair, and the way he always wore the same white button-up, black pants attire even though he had a variety of clothes in his wardrobe because it ‘suits my personality’.

Another time, when Grim could go back to being what it was always supposed to be. 

Uncaring, unbothered, neutral.


End file.
